The appearance of a web page is defined in document written in a particular type of source code called a “markup language.” Examples of markup languages include hypertext markup language (HTML) and extended markup language (XML). A markup language has commands and data structures that define the arrangement and content of the web page in a way that is understandable to a web browser. If a digitized photo, spreadsheet or other imported image is to be displayed in the web page, the definition of the image is typically stored in one or more source files outside of the markup language document. To allow a web browser to retrieve and display imported images, the web page may include a reference to the source file or files, such as a pointer or filename.
There are many commercially available web publishing programs that allow a user to create and modify markup language documents with little or no knowledge of the markup language itself. These programs also allow the user to add images to a web page by simply locating the appropriate source files on the local network and adding a reference to them. These programs do not, however, allow the user to select an imported image directly from the web page and open it for editing. Instead, the user must execute a separate specialized application for editing that type of image, locate the source file for the image on the local network, and open it with the specialized application. For example, if a user wants to add special effects to a JPEG image on a page, he or she must know the path of the JPEG source file, open it in a graphics program that handles the JPEG format, add the effects, save the changes on the local network, and add a reference to the updated file to the web page source code.
Current graphics programs, however, are also limited in the sense that they are not capable of communicating using any of the popular networking and transport protocols (hereinafter referred to collectively as “Internet protocols”) such as those found in the various implementations of TCP/IP stacks. Therefore, these graphics programs can only work with image files that are stored locally. To edit an imported image of a remotely stored web page, a user has to open a browser, download the page and store it locally. The user must then open locate the source file of the image and open it with the graphics editing program. Once the user has finished editing the image, he or she must save it locally, open the image in a browser, and post it to the remote computer.